Philly Radio: KYW Newsrooms Relocate

Since the early 1970s, all-news radio KYW 1060 AM had been broadcast "from Independence Mall" - a touchstone for the region.

KYW anchors peppered the radio waves daily with that location as they fired off news bulletins that informed listeners of "the world" in 22-minute stretches.

"We had a gorgeous view," morning anchor Carol MacKenzie told philly.com recently of KYW's 10th-floor studios at Fourth and Market Streets. "The sunrises there were spectacular. I had so many pictures on my cellphone. It was a great place to be. We were part of the fabric of that part of the city."

MacKenzie and the other KYW personnel are now adjusting to a new Philly neighborhood with very different views: brick rowhouse rooftops stretching into gritty North Philadelphia.

KYW's employees relocated last month to the sixth floor of the former SmithKline pharmaceutical factory on Spring Garden Street, sharing a huge, seemingly endless, former factory floor with the CBS3 and the CWPhilly television stations. KYW now airs from "the CBS Broadcast Center in Spring Garden."

In a typical week, about one million people in the Philadelphia area listen to the radio station.

CBS executives said in an interview that relocating KYW's studios enabled CBS to consolidate office leases in the Philadelphia market and integrate television, radio, and www.CBSPhilly.com staffs for more efficient news coverage.

KYW's 75 employees and CBS3's 125 account for the manpower in the combined newsroom.